AN: Okay, first I have a message for the readers of my HP stories, in case they take a peak here: I am really sorry guys! I promise, I will update the other stories, I already started the third chapter to Together in Darkness, but you know how it is. You just mind your own business, look for something to read, don't find it and bam!, suddenly your brain starts spinning this tale and you just need to get it out. Kind of what happened here.
Now, dear Mass Effect community, how you guys doin'? This is a sort-of, kind-of self-insert story of a type I have never seen and always wanted to read.
What you do need to know is that this is a prologue chapter and the actual storyline will start between the end of ME1 and the beginning of ME2.
So, enough talk from me. I hope you find this at least mildly entertaining. Please leave a review. Constructive criticism is always a welcomed sight.
Warnings: adult language, graphic depictions of violence, graphic depictions of sexual situations
When I finished the first Mass Effect game for the first time- on a crappy laptop, with a lot of framedrops even at the lowest settings- I knew that I played something special. I loved almost every single character (the dislike was directed at the obvious culprits like the council members, Udina...and then there was the odd one in Liara. Yes, Liara. Sue me.). But I absolutely fell in love with the Turians. When I saw the first one, Nihlus, I wanted to kiss the person responsible for designing them. What kind of girl wouldn't fall in love with those metal plated birds and their face pantings and their flanging voices?
Of course I died when you could romance Garrus in Mass Effect 2 and I died even more when Nyreen Kandros was introduced in the Omega DLC for Mass Effect 3 and then I was ready to kill when you couldn't save her.
And now here I was, in my cozy room, while Judgement Day seemed upon us if that shitty weather outside was any indication. I started up the first and most charming Mass Effect yet again, ready to fall in love with it all over again despite its bugs, horrid controls and mediocre graphics.
I'm sure you guys were just like me when it came to character creation, spending like 200 hours there just to create a face identical to the ones you created 20 times before already. After what felt like ages, I was finally satisfied with how my Shepard turned out. Just as I was ready to exit character creation and start the campaign our electricity suddenly was gone, effectively shutting down my console and TV.
"No!" I almost wailed. All that effort for naught!
Frustrated and annoyed, I left my room to check several other switches and stuff and realized that a fuse must have blown due to the thunderstorm raging outside, so I went down into our basement to check our electrical panel. Looking for the circuit breaker needed, I quickly found it and as I wanted to switch it back to it's 'on' position I felt a charge at my fingertips but it was too late. The last thing my brain registered was me thinking "shit" as the strong and violent electric charge hit me like a truck. Then, everything went black.
My eyes opened slowly, the invading and bright light causing them to blink several times as I tried to get used to it. I groaned as I tried to sit up but immidiately felt lightheaded. My breathing was shallow and my heart was beating rapidly as my body protested against everything I did. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew that something was different, but I felt too weak to truly register, let alone check out, whatever it was that's different. First my head needed to stop hurting and the world needed to stop spinning like crazy.
As the seconds and minutes ticked by, I tried to calm down and tried to take deep and steady breaths. Slowly, my body started to calm down and my mind started to clear a bit, causing me to wonder how in the world I was still alive. Last thing I remembered was being hit by an electric charge from that blasted panel that threw me across the basement. I couldn't possibly have survived that.
Slowly opening my eyes again and blinking several times, I stared at the sky above me. Its red hue seemed eerily familiar. I sat up slowly and pulled my legs up, resting my knees against my chest and my head on the palm of my hands when I realized something. My skin colour wasn't pale anymore. My skin didn't look like human skin, period. I looked down at my legs and feet and my eyes widened in shock and when I looked at my hands a shocked screech escaped my throat which freaked me out even more because it had a flanging quality to it.
My skin was beige coloured and its quality was rougher and thicker than what I remembered, almost leathery. And I used to take so much care to keep my skin soft and smooth!
There were exoskeleton platings on my chest instead of my boobs and on several other locations of my body too. My hands had three fingers with vicious looking talons and my feet had two toes with equally vicious looking talons and a short leg spur on my calf. My breathing again was really shallow, making my panic obvious. I looked around and saw a lot of hills and rocky formations but also smoke rising into the sky and a few dead people lying around. I got shakily on my feet and was surprised that I could walk easily in this obviously new body. Taking a few steps, I saw a small puddle and hoped it would be enough to see my face. My suspicions about what was going on were strong and clear, but still. As I arrived at the puddle I knelt down and stared into the eyes of a young female turian. I knew this was real because I felt every ache in my body, because I felt dizzy when I woke up, because I could smell the death around here. And still, I pinched myself hard with my talons, yelping at the pain and drawing blood. Blue blood. My blood was freaking blue and I could feel its wetness as it ran down my arm.
It was freaky and unexplainable, but yes, I died and instead of in heaven or hell I landed in the freaking Mass Effect universe and woke up as a freaking Turian.
I kept staring at my face. The facial plating had a slightly brighter coloring than my beige skin and my eyes were a dark green with vertical, slitted pupils. I didn't have that fancy fringe the male turians have. Kind of obvious, considering that I was female. Instead of the fringe I did have those prolonged cheek platings. Something missing were facial markings.
Great, I thought. Whatever deity decided to put me here as a Turian could have at least not made me barefaced.
Wondering where 'here' was, I took another quick look of my surroundings. Red-ish sky, lots of smoke rising, a few trees here and there, rocks and cliffsides...and gas bags.
So it was Eden Prime, the human colony. The smoke and the dead could only mean that the Geth attack was either in full swing or that it just ended. From this position I couldn't see if Sovereign/Nazara was still here. I was about to get uo when I felt the end of a rifle against the back of my head. My breath caught in my throat as I turned around slowly.
"Your hands." The owner of the gun said and I could immediately tell that he was a Turian. What was weird was that I didn't even know because of the flanging voice but because of the language. Hearing it triggered something; like a hidden knowledge of the Turian language. Or something programmed into my head as I died and was put here. Who knows.
"Yes. Sorry." I answered, my mandibles twitching at really hearing my own voice for the first time in this body and also at hearing me speaking in chirps and clicks. It was so odd. I couldn't even tell if I was thinking in Turian or English.
I also knew that there could only be two Turians on Eden Prime (aside from me) and since I would recognize Saren's voice immidiately this one could only be Nihlus.
Lucky me.
So, kneeling, I held my hands up and turned around slowly and there he was in the flesh. My favourite Turian Spectre, Nihlus Kryik, with his gorgeous white markings and piercing, bright green eyes- such a contrast to his generally dark complexion, his skin and platings a dark red-brown.
Hey there, handsome. I thought to myself before I shook my head mentally, wanting to slap myself for thinking inappropriate things in a situation like this. Yet I couldn't help myself. I looked him up and down and checked out his impressive fringe. I almost felt the need to check it out. It was pure instinct. Was my whole being changed to fit the Turian thing, aside from my personality and knowledge of everything before my death?
"Who are you?" Nihlus asked me, his eyes fixated on me.
"I…" Was all I could get out. I stuttered and wrecked my brain but try as I might, my name just wouldn't come to me. I freaked out on the inside, despite realizing that a human name on a Turian female would seem odd. What could I remember, what was new about me, what remained? "I don't know…" I finally whispered, feeling my mandibles drop a bit. My mandibles. This was just crazy.
"Do you remember how you got here?" He continued his questioning.
"No." I answered. "I just...remember waking up. I don't know how I got here." Technically I wasn't lying about that either.
Regarding me a few more seconds with his assault rifle aimed at me, Nihlus finally nodded. He tapped on his omni tool a few times before speaking up. "Normandy, this is Nihlus. I have found a female Turian with severe amnesia. Send a shuttle for pick-up ASAP." Glancing at me briefly, he added: "Bring something to cover her up."
Since I couldn't blush anymore, my mandibles flared widely instead. Just fits this whole situation that I was so freaked at my current situation that I didn't even mentally process me being butt naked the whole time. But well, covering up was useless now anyways. Nihlus got his eyeful of my naked waist and whatever else Turian males found attractive in their females.
I could hear Joker's voice, recognized it immidiately, but not a single word made sense to me. I couldn't understand English. It was safe to assume at this point, that I was thinking in Turian. "I...don't have a translator."
He nodded in acknowledgement. "Our pilot said that a shuttle will be here in about six minutes. I will wait here with you until it arrives."
"You don't have to." I hastily replied. I knew what they were here for of course and they couldn't waste time on me right now.
"It's okay. I wanted to scout ahead but I might as well rendevouz with the rest of the team here." Nihlus again busied himself on his omni-tool as he absendmindetly explained his decision. "Shepard, I found a Turian civilian with amnesia. She has no idea who she is and how she got here. I already asked for a shuttle and it should be here by the time you reach our nav-point." Shepard gave a one-worded answer and with that Nihlus turned his attention back to me. "You are barefaced. Do you have any idea why? Was your marking removed? Did you never get one?"
"I don't know. I do know though that being barefaced is not a good thing."
"No...it isn't." Nihlus confirmed. "But you can earn your marking. We Turians are a tough bunch on our enemies, but we are even worse on our own. But still, you can earn your spot. You will have to work harder than ever before, but being barefaced does never have to be permanent...if you are not directly responsible of course."
"Thank you." I replied before looking behind me as I heard the shuttle approach. Realizing something I quickly turned back towards Nihlus. "I saw another Turian." I quickly lied, hoping that this idea would keep Nihlus alive.
"You did?" His sharp gaze pierced me again.
"Yes. He was armed and...he looked weird. More silver than grey. He had something too metallic about him. And he had a synthetic arm. And those robot things killing the humans seemed to follow him." I feared knowing about the Geth by name would be too suspicious, as it would be with Saren.
"You mean the Geth? The Geth are following a Turian?" The implications seemed to trouble him deeply, which was understandable. I wondered if he understood that I described Saren to him but I didn't think so, not believing that Saren looked so unnatural when Nihlus saw him the last time.
My mandibles twitching nervously, I nodded. I turned towards the human soldiers, who looked at me shyly as they handed me a long and dark quilt so I could cover myself up, just as the female and redheaded default Shepard, along with Kaiden and Ashley, arrived, all three of them eyeing me curiously.
Taking another look at Nihlus, I spoke to him again. "What's your name?" Of course I knew already, but he didn't know that I did.
"Never introduced myself, did I?" He chuckled lowly. "Nihlus Kryik. Spectre."
I nodded and gave him the Turian equivalent of a smile. "Be careful, Nihlus. And thank you."
He gave me a nod with a mandible twitch before he went back on his way with Shepard- who smirked at him- and the rest of the team.
The shuttle ride to the Normandy was one of the most uncomfortable things I had ever experienced and I am not talking about the smoothness of the ride and such. What was uncomfortable was the stares I received from the two marines sitting across from me and the awkward silence following my telling them that I didn't have a translator after their tries of talking with me ended with me staring at them blankly.
It was so weird how a language I spoke for my whole life suddenly was just...gone. It felt like I was...reborn...or reincarnared into a new body or species and changed enough to fit into this but enough of me remained in my head that it didn't change me too much. If that made sense.
Still, how was it possible to be reincarnated into a video game? I mean, I don't mind this situation too much. Turians are freaking cool and if Nyreen was anything to go by in Mass Effect 3, the females look gorgeous. If I may say so myself, from what I could make out in that puddle, I did look like one sweet, female Turian ass. But this was still so unreal. It felt like a joke. But it wasn't. This was real, the Reapers were coming, I was a barefaced Turian, I didn't understand human languages anymore, I spoke and understood the Turian language, I was naked under a quilt in a shuttle with two marines of the Normandy en route to the Normandy in space.
Fuck.
It wasn't too long until we reached the Normandy. In real life, right in front of my eyes, she looked even more beautiful than in the games. The engineering and storage deck, where the Mako was stored in the game, opened and the pilot took us in, landing smoothly next the Mako.
That horror vehicle.
I was led out by the marines and greeted by Pressly. Anderson was probably busy following the mission. Understandable. The marines were talking shortly with the navigator, probably explaining how I didn't get a word of what they were saying, and then I was led to the elevator and up to the crew deck and med bay. I looked at the marines in horror. They were going to let me walk in nothing but that quilt through the crew deck? I looked down in embarassment as we finally reached it and stepped out of the elevator before walking into the med bay. There I was greeted by Dr. Chakwas. I looked around and, as was the same in the engineering deck, everything seemed bigger. But it made sense. If all of this would have been the same size layout as in the game it would have been highly impractical to say the least.
After getting an explanation from the marines I was finally left alone with the Doctor, who led me towards a bed and made me sit. Rummaging through some shelves, she finally turned towards me with a small chip, probably a translator implant, and placed it in some device. When she went behind me and turned me so that she could easily reach my neck, I felt her cut the leathery skin of my neck, but it wasn't painful. She then placed the device with the implant at the cut and I felt something being placed underneath my skin. A few short seconds late it was done as the device healed my skin as soon as the implant was safely placed.
Dr. Chakwas then stepped in front of me and looked at me with a smile. "Hello, dear. I hope you can understand me now?"
I gave a short nod. "Yes, I actually do." Damn, those translators work fast!
"Good. I am Karin Chakwas, the Doctor here on the Normandy. From what I gathered, you suffer from severe amnesia and have no idea who you are and how you woke up, naked, on Eden Prime."
"Yes." I nodded again. Technically, all of that was true. I had no idea how I got into the Mass Effect universe and I had no idea what in the world my name was, even though my human name would do me little to no good right now.
"Well, there is little I can do about your memory. I can't just make you remember things." She frowned. "Do you remember anything about your markings?"
I shook my head. "No."
"Let me do a quick scan. Maybe there are still particles of the colour. If not then you probably never got your markings or they were removed a very long time ago."
I didn't really expect anything, really, but I was in for a huge surprise.
"There actually is still some residue of the colour used...must have been removed in your early teens…"
So, I have had colony markings. This was really getting weird. Was I just given the body of some poor Turian woman? Was I a body hijacker now? What was going on?
"Do you know your age?" Chakwas suddenly asked me, startling me out of my thoughts.
Thinking for a moment, I sighed, shaking my head. "No...no, I don't."
The elderly doctor just smiled at me kindly. "No worries, we will have that determined in just a moment." She then gave my body a full scan, going quickly over any data she received, nodding some and frowning some. After a few minutes she looked at me with a sympathetic smile, which I really didn't like. "The readings of the growth of your platings determine your age to be around nineteen years, giver or take a year. From what I gathered you have several healed fractures and other internal wounds. Externally there isn't much to see, but you most likely had a lot of bruises at some point."
"That doesn't really sound nice." I didn't know what else to say. So this body was badly abused at some point and...left to die?
"No, it doesn't." Chakwas sighed.
"What about my memories?"
"They probably will come back at some point. It is most likely that your mind shut down and blocked off traumatic events to protect itself. Whatever happened to you has made your mind block the memory. It is a natural defense mechanism that we all have, no matter the species."
That made sense. "And my name?" I needed one after all.
"Rest for now. You need to sleep. You can think of a name to use after everything else has sunk in. But first, let me get something for you to wear." She rummaged through another drawer and picked out undergarments and casual Turian clothing before handing them to me. "Can't have you running around like this the whole time."
I thanked her before changing into the clothing. I then went to lay down on the bed and turned onto my side, away from Dr. Chakwas. Human beds really were uncomfortable for a Turian.
My thoughts running rampant made it hard to relax. There was so much going on in my head. Why was I in this body? Why did a game suddenly become real life? Who was I...she...this body? What happened to me before I woke up? What happened to my human body?
At some point though I couldn't help but close my eyes, feeling mentally drained. Slowly, I drifted off into a restless sleep.
I woke up slowly with a groan. 'Rested' was not how I would describe myself right now. It was weird. I didn't really have a dream. After falling asleep I just woke up, but I felt drained in a way and had a headache, caused by a name that kept replaying itself over and over in my head. Maybe it was my Turian name? It would make sense for me to remember it after a little time, considering that it probably wasn't something associated with the abuse I apparantly suffered from.
I got up but was hit by another dizzy spell, just like when I woke up in Eden Prime. I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw Dr. Chakwas standing next to me with a needle. My mandibles tightened against my jaw in a frown.
"I will have to inject some vitamins directly into your bloodstream. Part of you feeling dizzy is because you lack proper nutrition. When we arrive at the Citadel you should really go and see a doctor there though. I recommend Dr. Michel. I will forward all of your data to her, if that's alright?"
Nodding, I let her inject that vitamin cocktail or whatever it was before getting up. I was then handed a bag with Turian toiletries from the doctor, who allowed me to use her bathroom. Having a Turian Spectre on board really paid out for me, it seems. But maybe they had all those things at the ready because the Normandy was a collaboration between Humans and Turians.
In the end it didn't really matter much. The important thing was that I could shower, brush my really sharp teeth and polish my platings. It was all in my instincts. Again, I was granted with the knowledge of how to be Turian without having to try- as if it had been always there.
I stepped out of the bathroom, feeling like a completely new Turian.
While showering, standing under that relaxing and warm water, I thought about my situation. I thought about what to do and how to deal with everything but came up with nothing. I mean, what could I do, really? The Reapers would soon appear and none of this would matter. I knew that I would need to help the Shepard's team but I literally had zero combat experience. I would just be a tag-along with nothing to offer. So, what was needed was someone willing to train me. I was motivated and I was willing. It was obvious that I couldn't change me being a Turian or me being in the Mass Effect universe, so I might as well just accept it and make the most of it.
And there was also the matter of that name in my head.
I looked around in the doctor's office, but she was nowhere to be seen. So I stepped out and saw her right at the entrance to her office. "Excuse me. Doctor."
She looked up from her daralad with a kind smile. "How are you feeling?" The doctor asked immidiately.
"Definitely better after that shower. Thank you." My mandibles twitched nervously. "Listen...I, uh, I think I remember my name." I said in a low voice.
Chakwas now had her full attention on me. "You do?"
"I think so. It came to me during my sleep and now it's stuck in my head."
"Things like that tend to happen. After the initial shock disappears and the body can start to relax, base memories like names can resurface." The doctor explained. "So, care to tell me your name?"
"Yes. Sorry. It's Tulana. Tulana Vitridonis."
"Very well. Welcome on the Normandy, Tulana." She typed something on her Datapad before looking up at me. "You should probably speak to Captain Anderson and Commander Shepard." She said. "They should be in the command deck. Just take these stairs." She pointed me the way, though it wasn't necessary. I knew my way around this ship. Still, I couldn't mention this of course, so I thanked the kind doctor and made my way up to the command deck. I looked around and saw Shepard, Nihlus and Anderson discussing something. I stood a few feet away from them, kind of awkwardly in the way of everybody, not sure if I should walk up to them or not.
A light tap on my shoulder made me jump. "Spirits!" I put a taloned hand on my chest, trying to slow down my heart. Wait. Spirits? Where did that come from?
"Whoa, sorry about that."
I turned around and glared at the culprit, who happened to be Kaidan Alenko. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!"
He had both his hands raised apologetically. "As I said, sorry. Actually, I wanted to ask how you are holding up. I heard that you lost your memory or something."
"Most of it anyways." I chuckled. Man, I really needed to get some answers on this Turian me! "But I have a name now, so there's that."
"Better than nothing." I heard a woman's voice answer in Kaidan's stead. I turned around yet again, this time to be approached by the trio I initially wanted to see. "Commander Jane Shepard." She held a hand out to me. This was so freaky. My hero, the one I spent so many hours controlling during the craziest adventures, was standing right in front of me and held a hand out to me.
"Tulana Vitridonis." I shook her hand. It looked so small in mine. "I...thank you for allowing me to stay on your ship."
Shepard laughed at that. "This beauty is not mine. Anderson here is captaining her."
"Of course. Sorry." I didn't know what else to say. This whole thing was kind of overwhelming.
"Nothing to be sorry about, Miss Vitridonis." Anderson, always the polite and professional one, spoke up for the first time. "We all are just glad that you made it out of there in one piece. But I must ask: you really have no idea how you got to Eden Prime?"
"I'm sorry." My mandibles drooped a bit. "If I did I would have told you."
"Of course. I imagine you must be more curious than we are."
"I promise I'll let you know as soon as I get more memories back that could be of importance to you." I then looked at Nihlus. "Could I talk to you in private?" I asked the Turian who gave me a curious glance but then nodded.
"If you would excuse us. Captain, Commander, Lieutanent." He then went to the communications room with me in tow.
Once we arrived he looked at me expectantly. Made sense, since I asked him for a private chat.
"Did you ever know someone or hear of someone whose last name was Vitridonis?"
"I'm sorry, but no. I didn't have much opportunity in my youth and during boot camp to get to know people, even less so since the beginning of my Spectre training."
I frowned. One opportunity to know more about my Turian me was gone.
"I'll make sure to keep my eyes open, in case anything comes up but you will understand why I can't make this a priority." He almost sounded apologetic.
"It's okay. So...how'd your mission go?"
"It's classified."
"Oh come on! You can trust me."
"Doesn't matter." He started to sound impatient.
"But I'm a witness."
"With amnesia. Nothing you would have to say would be of any use to us." He sighed. "Look, if you have nothing else to say, I still have a lot to do."
"I want you to train me." I finally blurted out. "I have nowhere to go, nothing to do, no credits, no memories of anything. I wouldn't survive a day out there. If you could help me take care of myself…" I almost begged him. I was really desperate here.
"Look, you have to understand that I simply do not have the time to train a civilian. There are others out there who have it just as rough as you and they manage. You will too. Now if you'll excuse me." And with that he left. Just like that. He basically cut me off, threw me off the ship. Could he do that? He was a Spectre. But what was I thinking anyways, asking him like that? I had no skills, no arguments at all for him to even think about agreeing. And now I was alone.
I was screwed.
I stepped out with the rest of the crew and didn't know where to go. Shepard and the crew apparantly saw their duty as finished, having safely dropped off the random civilian on the Citadel. They obviously couldn't stick around and wait until I 'regained my memory'.
Without any money, without having any training that could be of use here and with me being barefaced, well…
So I just did the first thing that came to mind and that was walking. I walked without knowing where to go. I was scared shitless and wrecked my mind to come up with any plan but nothing came to mind. I sat down on a bench, not really looking where I was.
This was an absolute nightmare. Maybe I could somehow smuggle my way to Omega. But what would I do there? It wouldn't probably even take half a day there for me to get raped or something.
No, I needed to relax. I needed to clear my mind, take deep breaths and think. I could do this. I had to do this!
After taking several calming breaths, I finally calmed down. So, first things first. What is the most important thing someone can own in the Mass Effect universe? The omnitool! I need it to gather information via the extranet, pay for stuff, communications.
So, how do I get one? Shoplifting!
Now that being decided, I got up and looked for a way to get to the Zakera Ward. After I finally found a shuttle I could use, I picked my desired location and was transported there automatically, not needing to control the shuttle at all.
Once I arrived, I got out and tried to be as inconspicious as possible but my bare face made it a little bit more challenging. I finally reached a shop that sold omnitools. The Turian shop owner was distracted by a Human, so I quickly slipped in. I browsed for a bit, picking up a box, reading the Turian description of the divice and acting as if I was contemplating about a purchase. I was in a far corner of the store and tried to scan for security cams but it was really hard to do, considering I didn't even know what to look for exactly. What did they look like? Were they hidden? So I just positioned myself as inconspiciously as possible at the shelf, blocking my hands from view as I checked my left and right. The shop owner was nowhere in sight and I was alone for the moment. I looked around for a bit and realized that there were different packages for different species. Weird. Looking around a bit more I found one for Turians and made sure that I was still left to my own devices. I then scratched the back of the box open with a sharp talon and removed its contents. Huh. Gloves. Not how I imagined what omnitools would actually look like but that would explain why everyone was wearing gloves throughout the series.
I put the box back in the shelf, but a couple rows farther in the back, and stuffed the gloves under the waistline of my pants. Good thing that they fit so snugly.
Trying to be as casual as possible, I strolled out of the store as the owner was still busy discussing with a human why he couldn't return whatever he bought. I kept walking for a while and finally found a deserted bench, away from the busy noise. Taking out the gloves, I put them on and they fitted my hands nicely, the tips hardened so my talons wouldn't damage them. After I activated the tool hologram screen appeared, wanting me to create a user ID, complete with password and all. I was glad that email verifications seemed to be a thing of the past though. After all of that was finished I finally got to be able to explore the capabilities of an omni-tool, even though what I 'owned' wasn't military standard. I still could access the extranet though, which was what I really needed. The first thing I did was to look for 'my' parents. I needed to have a base understanding of my Turian background and what happened to me. Unfortunaly though there were way too many people with Vitridonis as their last names. But now thinking about it, I wasn't really sure if it would be a good thing to be found by my Turian parents. They would want to spend time with me and not let me out of their sights. Probably.
This was all way too complicated.
After deciding to ignore the parent thing for now, I did some idle research on Omega. Aria had to be Omega's leader by some time now, that obnoxious bitch. Never could stand her and her arrogance. Nyreen probably went underground already, if I had the timeline right. Other than that there wasn't really that much going on. I needed a way to get money and a way to build and hone some skills. Right now I was little to no use in this world.
My little shoplifting thing did work okay. Maybe I could do that. Steal a little here and there, maybe learn some hacking on the way. Best case scenario being that I could build the necessary skills and get in Shepard's crew by the time Garrus becomes Archangel. Worst case being that I get caught and get thrown off the Citadel and die. Considering the Reaper threat and all it wouldn't be much different from the normal outcome anyways, so no big deal.
My mandibales twitched as I leaned back against the bench in satisfaction.
I finally knew what I needed to do: Tulana Vitridonis was about to become a small-time criminal!
AN: Just wanted to explain the glove-omnitool thing quickly. I did a shit ton of research about what omnitools actually looked like and how they worked and what made the most sense was actually that glove thing. In the codex in one of the games it is apparantly described as something 'handheld' and people wear those gloves to be able to touch the holoscreens. So I thought it would make sense, considering how many people in the MEU wear gloves.